It was just a group of Jewish girls....

In this excerpt, Yvonne Salomon remembers her schooldays in France and Switzerland.

All questions in parentheses are mine.
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(And you were the only child?)

Yes. They had a son before me. My mother had pneumonia at the time of her—how do you say, when a child is born?

(Birth?)

The birth of her child, she had pneumonia. That was before penicillin, of course, and the doctor gave the customary question to the husband. “You have to decide: your child or your wife.” Of course he said, “My wife.” So the child was born but lived only three days, a boy. It would have been a butcher more. So that was in 1914, and I’m born three years later. And when I was four, my mother had another pregnancy, but she had to be operated and for that, in Sarreguemines the hospital was not good enough. They took her to Strasbourg. I remember having gone there with my father and my great-aunt and seeing her all the way up behind a window. But she had that terrible thing which happened some years later….I don’t know what it was. But she had to be operated on, and of course then she couldn’t have any more children. So my great-aunt lived with us, and my mother was completely free to order around the store and the house. There were a lot of people working there.

(And your great-aunt took care of you?)

Yes. Completely. She took care of me and nothing else. My mother took care of all of the rest. There were a lot of people, men, who were working there. Because my father also made the whole—what do you?—charcuterie, how do you call it? Salumeria in Spanish.
The smoking and making sausages and prepared meats.

(Prepared meats.)

Yes, for the wintertime we did a lot of baking and pastries, things like that. That my mother did, on top of all this.

(Amazing.)

Yes. When you think of it, it’s amazing everything she made. There are very few things she did not make.

(Did you grow up in a very religious home?)

No. It [the store] was open on Shabbat, closed only on Sundays, and even in the morning it was open. Most food places were open on Sunday mornings. It was before the era of refrigerators. My father used to say a few pages of the benshen (the blessings after every meal.) And my mother, who was raised an Orthodox, didn’t have time for that. We went to synagogue only on holidays, and then only my father went. Sometimes my mother went, but just for an hour.

(Did they ever send you to religious school?)

There was no religious. We had a rabbi and a chazzan (cantor.) He gave religious lessons, which were really quite bad. Later we had two hours every Thursday. Thursday was a school-free day in France at the time. In Protestant school, we had two hours of lessons with the chazzan.

(When did they send you to school? How old were you?)

Six.

(And they sent you to the public school?)

No. There were two public schools. There was a lycée, only for boys. But some girls were accepted. But God forbid that they would let this little girl near a boy. God forbid. I went to the so-called École supérieure, which was not superior at all. My great-aunt had taught me reading. I was reading already when I was four years old. And then I went to that other school, which after four years, at age twelve, so after six years, we got what’s called certificat d’études, (certificate of studies), which was already at that time good for nothing. But it permitted anybody to go on studying. I didn’t plan to—I didn’t like studying. My only good subject was French and composition and whatever around the language, and history.

(In school, did you experience any anti-Semitism?)

Yes. All over.

(Can you give me some examples?)

Well, I remember once—my parents closed the store only for Yom Kippur. And I remember going to the synagogue after my parents, so I was alone. I passed two girls on the street. I was probably dressed a little more fashionably than they were on that day. One saying to the other in a loud voice, “Gucke da, a Jud!” “Here’s also a Jew.” It was not official, the anti-Semitism, but you could feel it. France being a republic, religion is not taught at schools. Private schools can do whatever they want, but in some state schools, they had asked for the privilege of one hour a week lesson, a religion lesson. So the rabbi, the Catholic priest, and Protestant pastor came for one hour. That was all. We were terribly ashamed, because our rabbi was a disgusting person. Dirty, dirty! Shocking! I tried to never be seen in his company.

(And he was the rabbi for Sarreguemines?)

Yes, only for Sarreguemines. Yes.

(And tell me, you were in this school until what age?)

Fifteen.

(And then you went to a different lycée?)

No, I went to a private school in Switzerland, in Lausanne. My mother wanted me to go to a private school. My parents were really not very much aware of what was being taught there, but it was not very much. It was English, German, French, and I took a course in artistry, and what else did I have? That’s about it.

(Did you enjoy going?)

Yes, I enjoyed it there. I had two good friends, the only two who spoke French. (chuckles) Everybody else was usually from Russia, Bulgaria. It was a Jewish place. Everywhere Jews were in danger. People sent their children to internes, how do you say it? Boarding schools in Switzerland.

(Did you feel that you had something in common with those girls from Bulgaria or Russia?)

Nothing at all. And they treated us also like people from outer space. The three French-speaking were always together. There were one from Colmar in Alsace, myself from Lorraine, and another one from Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg. That was all.

(And tell me, what was the name of the school?)

Pension Bloch. Bloch, like your grandmother’s maiden name.

(Did you take Bible lessons there? Was it very Jewish, or no?)

Nothing like that.

(It was just a group of Jewish girls.)

Nothing whatsoever. On Saturday, we didn’t even go to synagogue but we did go to dances organized by the Jewish community.

Transcript by Sandy Adler, Adler Enterprises LLC.